No, not AT show center (safety issue, if a plane crashed into the crash truck...), but somewhere that they could get to show center in a reasonable amount of time. I'm trying to remember where they were during the airshows we had at DM when I was stationed there. My brother-in-law was a USAF firefighter during my time…

In all honesty, they should have had a crew on standby in the crash truck ready to roll somewhere away from the crowd but within a short distance of show center. A 2 1/2 minute response time during something like this is very bad.

Saab Draken

Not really production, but...

Created by Gawker alum, Ray Wert!

You poor, dumb, bastard.

I'm just gonna put this here...

This gif accurately describes what I did when I got out of that truck.

I did up near the beginning of the replies.

Yep. Reported it immediately, peed in a cup, blood drawn, etc. Faced "the man" (as shown above) and took my licks.

Yes, it went on my record until I went to a different base. There was a possibility they could have taken rank from me and made me pay for the wingtip (I used to know the exact cost, but it was just over $26000). That would've been a couple years pay and an E-3.

#wearenotalone

Nope. I got out in 2007. A-10 Crew Chief from 2000-2004 (2A353J), Comm Guy from 2004-2007 (3CO51). I do disaster Comms now.

It's a form of punishment in the USAF. It downgraded my performance report, which is used for promotions. I had to score a little higher on my promotion testing (the last 5 are stacked for promotion purposes) than my co-workers as well.

Indirect fire, so to speak.

Yeah, but that particular plane sucked. I liked working mine much better (I was the Dedicated Crew Chief on this one). 628th A-10 off the production line. I miss her sometimes.

Hey, everyone makes mistakes. So long as you can fess up to them, learn from them, and not let them happen again, it's just a bump in the road.

Signed, no written feedback, looked at the Captain and said I made a huge mistake. Learned from it, went on to deploy later that year and do some cool things. I keep the letter in my cubical as a reminder not to do stupid shit.

For clarification so I don't seem like the idiot in the video above:

I'll have you know I helped fix it. Numerous times. That jet was a pig anyway.